EggXpert

Dell and HP are set to start loading them in prebuilt systems.  Athlon X2's to be discontinued from Dell's lineup. 

See the article on DailyTech for more info.  http://www.dailytech.com/AMD+Triplecore+Phenom+Processors+Inbound/article10738.htm

I read somewhere, maybe here, that the tri cores are a quad core with a dead core. Something about instead of scrapping a quad core with 1 dead core, AMD would just sell it as a tri core. I can't remember where I read that.

if thats true and i hope its not then thats a really bad sign of amd's quality of production if they're stocked for a huge launch

Yeah, their is truth in the fact that AMD will be releasing tri-cores and yes, they will be quad-cores essentially with one "dead core" and no, you cannot just "Re-activate" the core just for future reference all that easily

http://www.trustedreviews.com/cpu-memory/news/2007/09/17/AMD-To-Sell-Tri-Core-Processors/p1

I read it somewhere else too but too many articles to recap, so little time.

I think the tri-core with one dead core can be a great thing as well as a terrible curse. One dead core means less heat for the same surface area on the die, which will in turn allow higher clock speeds with less heat. On the flip side, it's almost stupid to just disable one core, but it seems to be the best plan of action; I'm just wondering what exactly their pricing scheme will look like because if priced well, that may really be quite tempting for some people because it's got the power of 3-cores not 2 or 4 and keeps nice and cool (presumably moreso than 4 cores) and should be hopefully more overclockable and run at higher clock speeds without a problem.

Maybe they will satiate our desire for an unlocked multiplier with at least one processor in this generation hopefully yielding high results unlike the 6400+ BE and 9600 BE.

Disabling one core is probably better than redesigning the entire architecture for one mid-high range processor line. I think they should be alright as long as profitability is still a high priority and they price these well to make money, perform and sell well. 

Slmclarengt 

ok thats not so bad as long as they meant for it to be a dead core to start with, which in that case i say bring on the three way i'd like to check one out if not badly priced and decent performance myself

Yeah three way action is awesome!

Just the evil waiting game again  

Slmclarengt 

are they going to be optimized for am2 or am2+ boards? just curious as to the proper hardware would need to be

It will be "optimized for AM2+" but of course backwards-compatible with some older AM2 socket motherboards (if the BIOS chip can support the new CPU IDs).

Slmclarengt 

Its kinda like tripod the dog.  Cute but I wouldn't want one

The reasoning behind disabling one of the cores is derived from profit. In each wafer full of future CPU's there are are going to be chips that do make the cut due to some type of defect. In some cases, they will be able route off and mask around a single defected core and still be able to deliver three working cores connected to the same L3 cache. Both AMD and Intel have done this in the past with Celeron and Sempron chips. Those were often taken from a wafer of Pentium or Athlon processors and like above, had some type of defect. In the case of those, they could route off and mask around defective cache and still have a working processor - with less cache.

This keeps so many chips from hitting the trash bin, creating zero profit, and also hopefully gives you a good performing product for the price. 

wfinney:

Its kinda like tripod the dog.  Cute but I wouldn't want one

 

That's such a great ananlogy. LOL.

I think I'd try one, but I have to give my appreciation to that analogy.

I'm waiting on these Tri-Cores to come in, "The WorD" is it will be in March of this year. I'm not expecting it perform like Intel, but I mean come on it's a 3 way..

Here is a chart I found from HKEPC. http://www.techpowerup.com/img/08-02-01/2008020112591151452978954.jpg

They are usually very reliable for marketing information. 

They should give dedicated customers some to try. I'd be down

cman:

The reasoning behind disabling one of the cores is derived from profit. In each wafer full of future CPU's there are are going to be chips that do make the cut due to some type of defect. In some cases, they will be able route off and mask around a single defected core and still be able to deliver three working cores connected to the same L3 cache. Both AMD and Intel have done this in the past with Celeron and Sempron chips. Those were often taken from a wafer of Pentium or Athlon processors and like above, had some type of defect. In the case of those, they could route off and mask around defective cache and still have a working processor - with less cache.

This keeps so many chips from hitting the trash bin, creating zero profit, and also hopefully gives you a good performing product for the price. 

What he said ^^^.  I predict that the Phenom Tri Cores will be to the AMD lineup like what the Celeron Dual Cores will be to Intel.  As Phenoms come further and further into play and as the Athlon X2 series is slowly killed off, the tri core Phenoms will wind up being the low end solution for AMD CPU's.  That is unless AMD comes out with it's own dual core Sempron to compete more with Intel's low end. 

Look at it this way, in two years the only processors we will be able to purchase anymore will be multi core CPU's.  If Intel's low end is the dual core Celeron, and AMD's is the tri core Phenom, and they are both priced about the same, who will be winning the low end CPU market? 

Granted this is all just speculation on my part, but I could very easily see it happening. 

BTW, anybody have any projected priceing for the Phenom Tri Cores? 

Seeing as how I am always broke, I wouldn't mind stepping up my current CPU to one of these new Tri Cores here soon. 

Don't forget about the dual-core processors to come from AMD. Phenom based "Kuma" will be sold as Athlon X2. They were originally stated to be part of the Phenom launch but AMD has decided to keep them under the Athlon name. They also pushed them back a couple of quarters. Launch for those should be Q2 2008

The 6250 and 6050 are "Kuma" dual core processors.

http://www.vr-zone.com/articles/AMD_Adds_Kuma_%26_Lima_To_Athlon_Brand/5336.html

The second I get word on pricing from a reliable source, I will post back.

Im still not impressed, I wanna see some higher clocked phenoms already. Tri core looks somewhat promising though.

IN OTHER NEWS, core2duo e8400 just hit 5.0ghz!

 

Like cmon, Intel is making so much more progress. Seems as if AMD is slacking so much. 

Sounds kinda silly to be, tri-core? what is the point.

The point is a good processor being sold to the market that otherwise would have been just tossed into the garbage can. 

RjBass:

The point is a good processor being sold to the market that otherwise would have been just tossed into the garbage can. 

 

Yea, it's brilliant from a business perspective.

I did some research, and the way that AMD manufactures their quad-core processors with 4 CPUs on one die has about a 10-15% defect rate. This is usually just one core that goes, so they factory "deactivate" the core, and it performs EXACTLY the same, but with a higher cache to core ratio. It's a pretty sound idea, and it gives consumers almost the same performance for a significantly (I think) price compared to a comparative quad-core.

I'll probably buy one.

I think they will replace the top Athlon X2, and will be price around $100-150? Just my guess.

If it is compatible with the AM2 socket I'll snatch one up

The only thing stopping it from being compatable on your MoBo is your Mobo manufacturer.  Currently my two year old MoBo from Asus supports the currently available Phenoms with a bios update and most likely it will support the upcoming releases.  But I would be willing to bet that cheaper lower end boards won't get bios updates for the Phenoms.  The machine I'm on now has a PC Chips A33G Mobo in it and the latest bios update doesn't have any support for Phenoms.